Many people probably would agree that the transistor was the greatest technological invention of the twentieth century. The first transistor, invented by Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce in 1958, was made from silicon. Even though integrated circuit technology has advanced to the level of putting millions of transistors on a fingernail-sized chip, transistors are still made from silicon. Now, however, both the scientific community and the high-tech industry are very excited about something new: plastic electronics. For many of us, this might sound like an oxymoron, for we know plastic only as an insulator. So how can a protective substrate or a carriage box to the actual electronic device be converted into an electronic device?

The story of plastic electronics started late 1970s with Alan Heeger, Alan Macdiarmid, and Hideki Shirakawa. These scientists demonstrated that the molecular structure of certain polymers (plastics) can be manipulated and then used as conductors. The Swiss Academy of Sciences was somewhat slow in recognizing their work, for they were awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry only in 2000. Nevertheless, the scientific community did not wait for the Nobel committee’s recognition of plastics. Since 1977, plastic has become probably the most common material in our daily lives.

Silicon versus plastic

All computer chips are made out of silicon (semiconductor) and aluminum (metal). Silicon is a great material for integrated circuits, because it is available, can be acquired in an extremely pure state (single crystal or amorphous), and has a very high mobility (the speed that electrons can travel through material). This mobility, in turn, determines the device’s switching speed. However, silicon has one important drawback: It is not easy to process.

Integrated circuit technology can deposit millions of silicon transistors on a single chip. However, the procedure for making these devices usually requires facilities worth billions of dollars, for silicon has to go through complicated photolithography procedures under clean room conditions before it can be incorporated into a device. But is it really worthwhile to spend billions of dollars on such facilities? The answer probably looks obvious, since Intel remains one of the world’s largest companies. However, we do not really need such a high quality in many of the applications for which silicon is used. So if there is something cheaper that can do the job perfectly, why not use it? Plastic is far cheaper, but not so sophisticated an alternative.

Plastic is cheap because billion-dollar facilities are not required to convert it into a device. In fact, the technology needed to process plastic into an electronic device is only slightly more advanced than an ink-jet printer. Electronic circuits are printed on an insulating polymer, and then certain parts of the polymer are exposed to UV light in order to convert the insulating polymer into a conducting polymer. The result is a device in which only the parts that we want to conduct are conducting. Moreover, these conducting parts sit on a protective insulating sheet of plastic. That is pretty much all we need for many applications.

The case for plastic

Plastic has two advantages over silicon: price and flexibility. Like other inorganic elements, silicon has strong covalent bonds between its atoms. As these bonds are rigid, they cannot bend or stretch. Plastic has very loose molecular bonds that can tolerate a significant amount of bending and stretching. Flexibility combined with electronics implies applications like flexible displays that can be rolled up and taken somewhere else, reloadable electronic newspapers that can be bent like paper, disposable mobile phones, and many others.

So if plastic is that good, why is it not the electronics industry’s standard material? For one simple reason: Plastic’s loose molecular bonds, which make the material so flexible, make it more difficult for the electrons to travel through it. Thus, plastic devices are slower than silicon devices. Until several years ago, the mobility of a typical conducting plastic used to be around 0.1 cm2/volts, whereas crystalline (best) silicon could reach 1000 cm2/volts at room temperature. Recently, a new class of polymers (pentacene) has been found in which molecules tend to self-organize. As a result, the mobility has been pushed up to 3 cm2/volts. Scientist working on pentacene estimate a number close to 50 cm2/volts as the limit of achievable mobility for this special polymer.

These expectations are not just wishful thinking of some optimistic scientists. In fact, even now there are some significant outcomes of plastic technology.

Current developments

John Rogers and coworkers from Bell Labs (Lucent Technologies) have patterned 256 polymer transistors on the back-plane of a flexible optical display. Richard Friend and coworkers from University of Cambridge have produced thin film transistor circuits using a high-resolution inkjet printing. Dago de Leeuw and colleagues at Philips Research Laboratories in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, have developed a new technique called photochemical patterning. In photochemical patterning, a light sensitive-polymer is exposed to ultraviolet light through a mask shaped in the form of the desired circuit. The ultraviolet light changes the polymer from a conducting state to a non-conducting state. In this process, the polymer’s resistance can increase as much as 11 orders of magnitude (100000000000). The advantage of this technique over the patterning techniques used for silicon is that it does not need any vacuum and can be used on flexible substrates. The problems with photochemical patterning are that it is not significantly cheaper than photolithography and etching used for silicon, and it can be used only for light-sensitive polymers. Different research groups have developed various techniques that have pros and cons compared to photochemical patterning. However, many of the techniques cannot print features that are small enough for electronic circuits. The critical length is the distance between the transistor’s source and drain, typically 0.01 mm. This is the distance that the field-induced charges have to travel. As the drive current and switching speed of the device depend on this distance, having too large of a distance reduces the capabilities of the device. Another technique that pursues quite a different approach is microcontact printing. Developed by the Bell Labs group, microcontact printing with rubber-like stamps can make small enough features. Scientists have used this technique to make a flexible display in which a transistor controls each pixel. The key point in developing this technique was using gold pads, instead of a polymeric material, to deposit the transistor’s source and drain. Even though this device is not completely plastic, it is a step toward that goal. When a special kind of ink was applied to a thin film of gold, it formed some sort of self-assembled layer on the gold, which then produced well-defined patterns and sharp edges. This provided the required resolution to make small enough features necessary for an electronic device having a reasonable speed. These two techniques show two important aspects of the problem. In photochemical printing, we have a device that is completely plastic and so has the important advantage of flexibility. However, it is not as cheap as it could be and does not have the required resolution. In the second technique, the outcome is not a 100 percent plastic device, so it is not as flexible as a purely plastic circuit. However, it can be manufactured very cheaply and has a better resolution (and thus a higher switching speed).

Conclusion

Many other approaches are being employed to develop this new and exciting technology. If plastic electronics does become standard for at least some applications, it probably will be a hybrid of these different techniques. If the optimistic group of scientists working on plastic electronics prove to be right, one day we might see TV screens curling around the walls of our rooms and even reloadable electronic newspapers that can be folded and carried like regular newspapers. Who knows what new inventions will come with this new technology?

References

• Garnier, F., (et al). Science 265 (1994): 1684-86.
• Gelinck, G., T. Geuns, and D. de Leuw. Applied Physics Letters 77 (2000): 406-8.
• Levi, Barbara G. ‘New Printing Technologies Raise Hopes for Cheap Plastic Electronics.’ Physics Today (February 2001). Online at: www.physicstoday.org/pt/vol-54/iss-2/p20.html.
• Nobel Focus: Electricity through Plastic.’ Physical Review Focus (24 October 2000). Online at: http://focus.aps.org/v6/st18.html.
• Scott, Campbell. ‘Electronics Put It on Plastics.’ Physics in Action. (October 1998). Online at: www.physicsweb.org/article/world/11/30/3/1.
• Voss, David. ‘Cheap and Cheerful Circuits.’ Nature 407 (28 September 2000).

As a result of the former view, our modern approach toward nature is often aggressive and arrogant. Until recently, people in the West viewed nature as something to be conquered and thus dominated. Humanity’s resulting struggle as to conquer and tame nature was inevitable. In the 1960s, when British scholars managed to measure the top of Mount Everest, they declared that they had conquered Everest, the object of their efforts. This is a clear indication of our modern approach to nature: domination instead of harmony.

The world’s great religions have significantly different approaches to nature. This article analyzes the Islamic approach by focusing on the Qur’anic understanding of nature as a book to be contemplated.

Islam and nature

Islam views nature as a book similar to the Qur’an, through which God reveals Himself. Although the Qur’an does not explicitly declare nature to be the book of God, it contains many references to nature as parts of the limitless words of God. One verse reads: Though the sea became ink for the words of my Lord, verily the sea would be used up before the words of my Lord were exhausted, even though we brought the like thereof to help (18:109). Some Islamic scholars interpret this as indicating that the sea itself is a sort of word of God. Therefore, if the sea were doubled it still could not provide enough ink to exhaust God’s words, because the ink in question is His word. Therefore, one can view every part of nature as a sentence or word in the book of nature, the author of which is God.

Accordingly, studying nature means studying the book of God. Those who believe in the Qur’an are expected to read this book in order to understand God, contemplate His creation, and maintain a dialogue with Him. Humanity is endowed with the ability to think, and thus can see God’s beautiful Names reflected throughout the natural world. This idea is indicated in: In the creation of the heavens and Earth and the succession of day and night are signs for people of wisdom”those who remember God standing and sitting and lying on their sides, and who ponder over the creation of the heavens and Earth, exclaiming: Our Lord, You have not created this in vain (3:119).

God’s beautiful Names

By contemplating nature, we inevitably realize the meanings and reflections of God’s beautiful Names. As we are the only conscious creatures in the physical world, only we are required to reflect upon nature. The Islamic tradition states that God has 99 Names, some of which are reflected in the natural world.

For example, the sun with all its glory, as well as the moon and the stars, reflect the Name al-Nur (The Light). Earth, with all its living creatures, reflects al-Hayy (The Living One). The whole universe is the result and reflection of al-Khaliq (The Creator). All love in the universe, from the love of human mothers for their children to the love of animal mothers for their young (in other words all human and animal beings’ inherent capacity to love) reflect al-Wadud (The Loving One). At the end of his Divine Comedy, Dante (1265-1321) indicates that God’s love is the love that moves the sun and other stars. This idea was also held by al-Jami, a famous Sufi. Many Muslim theologians, especially Sufis, consider the sun’s movement to be a result of the ecstatic love it feels for God.

Another example is the sustenance of all creatures, which is the product of al-Razzaq (The Sustainer). The capacity to see or understand reflects al-Basir (The Seeing One). The uniqueness of all living things with the variety of shapes reflects al-Musawwir (The Fashioner). All things of beauty reflect al-Jamil (The Most Beautiful One). These examples present nature’s positive aspects and how they reflect God’s Names. However, its negative aspects (e.g., natural disasters and death) also reflect some of His Names.

The Names and nature

The lofty reality of the relationship between God’s Names and nature perhaps can be understood as similar to the relationship between an object and a mirror. The sun’s manifestation and reflection appear in all small fragments of glass and droplets of water. They reflect the sun but are not the sun itself. Therefore, all creatures and the natural world reflect God but are not God. This element distinguishes Islam from pantheism, which sees nature as God.

Given that nature reflects God’s Names, it was created for a purpose. From the planetary to the atomic level, nature contains no randomness or chance of accidental creation. Everything is consciously created with a measure, which engenders an inimitable art. Even the smallest items of creation are crafted artfully and in painstaking detail. Such verses as: It is He [God] who creates and then disposes, Who measures and then guides (87:3) and: We have created everything with a measure (54:49) support the idea that everything in the universe is measured and guided by God, the All-Powerful and All-Wise, Who has directly designed and created all things. Islamic scholars assert that God must design and create even the smallest thing, for if He did not there would be chaos in the world. Accordingly, the universe is not a completely closed system of cause and effect laws.

The Qur’an calls the regularity of natural phenomena and the relationship between natural causes and their effects sunnat Allah (God’s way of acting). If one recovers from an illness by taking medicine, the Islamic understanding indicates that medicine is the apparent cause. However, the real Healer is the one who gives medicine its ability to heal. There is a subtle relationship between healing and medicine, because medicine or the process of healing itself both reflect al-Shafi (The Healer). Therefore, the search for medicine is a search for al-Shafi and something to be attained and not denied.

Likewise, you must follow the natural process if you want to produce an apple: plant a seed, wait for the tree to grow, water the tree, and see that it receives enough of the sun’s heat and light. In other words, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon combine in different ways to compose all plants, and God uses this process to work His Will.

Cause and effect

The process of creation is the result of this cause and effect relationship, out of which determinism and the famous Newtonian Mech-anism are derived. The relationship between cause and effect sometimes is very strong, sometimes very subtle, and sometimes indiscernible. For example, we can calculate astronomically at which time the sun will rise 10 years from now, but we cannot calculate or know if there will be rain this time next year. The scientific explanation of rain cannot determine when it will rain until the physical signs are present. Likewise, we may know life’s characteristics but not what ultimately makes something live. The Qur’anic understanding, unlike that of Newtonian mechanism, indicates that God is continually active in the universe’s creation: Every day He exercises universal power (55:29).

The laws of nature proceed from God’s Wisdom. Behind every cause and effect is the Cause of causes (Musabbib al-asbab): the ultimate Cause. In fact, the nature of creation indicates that the causes we see in our daily life cannot create the effects we witness. Natural causes, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and carbon are basically orderless, formless, blind, and unconscious, and therefore cannot create anything that is so consciously well designed. For example, the elements we receive from food are consciously distributed to the appropriate bodily organs and, in fact, neither the elements nor we are aware of this wonderfully organized distribution. Said Nursi, a contemporary Muslim scholar, argues that: If we deny the All Powerful One who is the Cause of causes, then we should accept that in every particular working in your eye there would have to be an eye such as that it could see every limb and part of your body as well as the entire universe with which you are connected.

As the natural world’s causes depend upon the ultimate Cause, they can be suspended. The regularity of natural phenomena depends upon the command of The Most Powerful One. He can suspend all natural laws, for He is the One Who enacted them. Examples of this are the miracles that He allows the Prophets to perform. Fire’s nature is to burn, but it does not burn when God does not will it to, as in: We said: O fire, be calm and peaceful toward Abraham (21:69). The miracles of Jesus, Moses, and Muhammad are other examples. To fully explore the miracles and their implications is beyond the scope of this paper.

When God wills to create something, He commands: Be! (kun) and it is. Natural laws obey His commands and therefore do not act independently. This is demonstrated when His Prophets are protected through a suspension of natural law. Muslim scholars interpret apparent causes as veils that hide God’s Power or Will. His Wisdom necessitates that causes veil His Majesty.

In this world, dar al-hikmah (the House of Wisdom), His Wisdom dominates. Thus the cause and effect relationship proceeds from His Wisdom. God can create a full-grown person in one day, but His Wisdom necessitates that a person be created in a way that allows him or her to have various stages of life. By working through a process in nature, God teaches people that they must follow a similar process in their deeds. Although God’s Power is reflected in the universe’s creation and in the natural world’s process of cause and effect, its real reflection is in the Hereafter (dar al-qudrah [The House of Power]), which contains no cause or effect, but only God’s power directly.

Conclusion

The Qur’anic understanding of nature encourages us to feel our ecological responsibility for the environment, because nature, being a book of God, deserves our highest respect. The Qur’an promotes love for nature, because nature is a result of the love of God as well as a letter and a helper leading to the discovery of ultimate reality. Through contemplating nature and by being more aware of the reflections of God’s beautiful Names, believers see His signs and experiences His presence in his or her daily life. They also will observe, through nature, His art and the lesson He gives to humanity through His creation.

Footnotes

1. Cited in Ian G. Barbour, Religion in an Age of Science: The Gifford Lectures 1989-1991 (USA: Harper San Francisco Press, 1990), 1:245.
2. For a complete list of God’s beautiful Names, see Ian S. Markham, A World Religions Reader (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2000). He also gives an excellent account of Al-Ghazali’s The Ninety-nine Beautiful Names of God, translated by David. B. Burrell and Nazih Daher.
3. Said Nursi, The Treatise on Nature, The Flashes Collection (the 23rd Flash on nature) (Istanbul: Sozler Publication, 1995), 232-54. Nursi argues that the naturalists’ way is impossible, whereas the Qur’an’s way is necessary. He defends this idea through parables and comparisons. In the introduction of his treatise he writes: This treatise puts naturalistic atheism to death with no chance of resurrection, and totally shatters the foundation stones of unbelief.

Honesty, defined as honor gained by action or conduct, is an inevitable part of our private and public life. But its implications for public life in a democracy are far more important. We can do a better job of passing on a sense of the value of honesty, integrity, and personal responsibility to the next generation in a democratic society. Teddy Roosevelt, while governor of New York, said: Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest we have no right to keep him in public life. No man who is corrupt, no man who condones corruption in others, can possibly do his duty by the community.(1)

It is not an easy task to resolve the problem of honesty in democratic governance. To the extent that knowledge gives power, to that extent do lies affect the distribution of power; they add to that of the liar, and diminish that of the deceived, altering his choices at different levels.(2) Bok, a writer and philosopher currently serving as a distinguished fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, explains the importance of honesty in public life by emphasizing how lying harms social trust:

The importance of honesty in public life is as follows. Lying and deception clearly do not affect only isolated individuals. As lies spread “ by imitation, or in retaliation, or forestall suspected deception “ social trust is damaged. Yet trust is a social good to be protected just as much as the air we breathe or the water we drink. Social goods are non-excludable, individuals cannot be prevented from sharing them, and they are available for the public to enjoy. Examples include the lighthouse, peace and security, and law and order. When social trust is damaged, the community as a whole suffers; and when it is destroyed, societies falter and collapse.(3)

In the public sphere, lying or the suspicion of lying has an added consequence: the proliferation of bureaucracy and regulation.

Gutmann and Thompson see deception, the action of deceiving or cheating, as closely related to secrecy and confidentiality. They consider the following factors in which citizens can permit public officials to engage in deception: the importance of the deception’s goal; the availability of alternative goal-achieving means; who will be deceived (other officials, other governments, all citizens); accountability (the possibility of approving deception in advance or discovering it later); and containing the deception (its effects on other actions by officials).(4)

Requirements of honesty

The principle of honesty, when applied to public policy and administration, has several requirements. The first one is the obligation to avoid lying. The Iran-Contra affair and other cases raised the perennial question of whether official lies should be permitted for the public good. When John M. Poindexter, President Reagan’s national security advisor, was accused by Congress of an unapologetic embrace of truth, he replied that he had acted in what he thought were the country’s long-term interests. Even those who disagree with Poindexter’s judgment acknowledge that certain situations warrant deception. But was this particular situation exceptional enough to warrant it?

The second requirement is being truthful when presenting information to superiors and the public. For example, a public official cannot make exaggerated claims (or vice versa) about what a proposed program will do in order to generate enthusiasm for it.

The third requirement is respecting other people’s ability to gather and present accurate information relevant to public policy. In other words, honesty requires that an official does not try to prevent or suppress studies that challenge his or her view. Deception involves intentionally (or negligently) causing someone to believe something that the deceiver knows (or should know) to be false. Political deception is not always easy to recognize, because it seldom comes in the form of an outright lie.(5)

The fourth requirement is to keep the public well-informed. This cannot be overemphasized, for an informed public is an essential ingredient of democracy. Yet in practice, some officials (e.g., the president, mayor, policy makers, or military people) have found an easy justification for both secrecy and deception. They believe that ordinary citizens, even sometimes other government officials, cannot understand such complex problems as military operations, international security and national defense issues, and other such matters. The people’s apparent inability to do so gives public officials a kind of right to deception. Since average citizens cannot possibly know the whole truth about specialized subjects, lying to them is permissible “ provided that there are some good reasons. Sometimes, government officials use the same ethic when they decide not to inform citizens of government involvement in various complex issues.

Conclusion

In a democratic society, these reasons cannot be used to justify giving anybody permission to deceive whenever they consider it necessary. The social good and public interest should not be used as excuses for deception; rather, they must be a reason for honesty. The ethical education of public officials, public awareness, open and transparent public administration, clear rules, policies, and regulations might ease the job of public officials in terms of ethical dilemmas. Such practices also might help them by providing consistency in decision-making, understanding the values reflected by that decision, and reaching more reflective judgments. Findings reported in several analytical studies indicate that ethics education is making a difference. We cannot afford, intentionally or unintentionally, to be a partner in producing a new generation of leaders who are ethically illiterate and morally misguided.

Footnotes

1. Theodore Roosevelt, The Eighth and Ninth Commandments in Politics, Outlook (12 May 1900). Online at: www.bartleby.com/58/7.html
2. Sissela Bok, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life (New York: Pantheon, 1978), 20.
3. Ibid.
4. A. Gutmann and D. F. Thompson, Ethics and Politics: Cases and Comments (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers, 1998), 48.
5. Ibid.

Genetic engineering is one of the fastest developing fields of science. It continues to impact our lives in many ways: the Green Revolution, the quest for perfect animal stock, disease treatment, or human reproduction. But success also has brought concerns. Plants have become insect resistant and also more toxic. Genetically engineered cattle produce more milk but have mutated and overgrown. When scientists opened the window for asexual human reproduction, life became a commodity that could be produced in a culture dish.

And it all started when a monk experimented with some sweet peas…

From Mendel to Dolly

Modern genetic engineering dates back to 1865, when the Austrian monk Gregor Mendel performed a series of experiments with sweet pea plants. These experiments led to changes in the plants’ genetic construction. Genetic engineering, also known as bioengineering or recombinant DNA technology, is a general term referring to any alteration of an organism’s genes in order to make them produce new substances or perform new functions.(1) During the following years, these little experiments developed into a new field. The genes of plants and small-sized organisms were altered through crossing, but other than that research was limited.

In the 1930s, industrial corporations like America’s Rockefeller Foundation or, 20 years later, Germany’s Volkswagen Group (VW), discovered a different approach to raise economic efficiency. At the same time, motives of social control and surveillance directed the Rockefeller Foundation’s interest in the human body to the individual and the collective levels.(2) The Rockefeller Foundation outlined its rationale for supporting genetic research as follows: For the last 100 years physics and chemistry have reigned supreme, and the question of human behavior had been neglected. The new goal was to accomplish social control through understanding and knowledge of the very basic elements of the human body.(3) With the promise of benefit for their own corporations, they started sponsoring this new subfield of biology. The National Institutes of Health, private corporations, institutes, and universities established research laboratories. The idea was that if more actors and institutions shared and exchanged knowledge, the more molecular biology’s narration of life would be consolidated, disseminated, and legitimized.(4) 

Soon discoveries were reported from the science frontier. In 1953, M. Wilkins, F. Crick, and J. Watson discovered DNA’s double helix model while working at the University of Cambridge in England. In 1962, they received the Nobel Prize for their discovery. In 1968 Nirenberg, Khorana and Holley received a Nobel Prize for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis.(5) 

The first frogs were cloned in 1970. In other words, an artificial copy of their embryo was produced. Soon this fast developing field of biology turned into a new industrial sphere. In 1980, industrial biotechnology emerged after the Supreme Court case of Diamond vs. Chakrabarty. In this case, Chakrabarty engineered and wanted to patent a certain kind of organism. After his request was denied, he went to court and received a favorable ruling. This decision led to the establishment of copyrights for living organisms, which ultimately industrialized the field. Producing and patenting new organisms were two crucial factors in the biotech industry’s development. Consider Steen Willadsen, who cloned the first sheep in 1984 from an embryo.(6) One year later, he mass-produced prize cattle embryos for Grenada Genetics in order to raise a perfect stock.(7) However, that project soon was stopped because of the cloned cattle’s high and death rates and abnormal behavior.

Since the biologic make-up of many mammals had been unveiled, scientists now had a new goal: exploring the human being. Therefore the U.S. Department of Energy launched the human genome project. Soon biotech giants like Celera and many private institutions got into the race. Their goal was to map the entire human genome in order to identify and eliminate disease-causing genes. This project raised certain concerns about what would be done with an individual’s DNA information, who could access it (e.g., insurance companies and employers), and genetic discrimination.

The first human embryos were cloned in 1993. Four years, later the whole world got to meet Dolly, the first sheep cloned from an adult cell. This was an important development, for it opened the door to asexual reproduction. But despite the great enthusiasm with this achievement, some people started wondering about possible dangers. Finally in June 2000, Bill Clinton announced the completion of the human genone project.

Applications and drawbacks

Genetic engineering has penetrated into various parts of our life. Agriculture has seen a Green Revolution. Herbicide-resistant plants were engineered to have built-in pesticide resistance and to convert nitrogen directly from the soil. By April 2002, the approximately 50,000 rice genes had been discovered. Scientists already are working on ways to alter rice, the main food of the world’s population, so that it will be more nutritious and resistant. Insects are being engineered to attack crop predators. Researchers are growing agricultural products in the laboratory using genetically altered bacteria. A major commercial role for genetically engineered plants as chemical factories is also envisioned, such as organic plastics.

Some drawbacks of this revolution are increased toxins and diseases, which are causing the resulting organisms to become resistant to antibiotics. Increased toxins in plants were designed to make insect-resistant plants. Nuclear physicist Dr. John Hagerlin testified in Washington, DC, at the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) public hearing that increased toxins trigger unanticipated allergic reactions. The resulting gene pollution threatens the environment, for it breaks down genetic barriers put in place by Nature.(8)

Industrial mistakes in production or insufficient research in engineered food ingredients also can cause serious problems. The Tryptophan food supplement, an amino acid marketed as a natural tranquilizer and sleeping pill, was mass-produced from genetically altered bacteria. It killed 37 persons and permanently disabled over 1,500 others with an incurable nervous system condition known as eosinophilia myalgia syndrome (EMS).(9) When these technologies were applied to livestock, farmers first were pleased that the engineered cattle produced more milk, grew faster, and yielded more meat. However, cases of mutation and rampant overgrowth have caused scientists to reevaluate the effectiveness of these procedures.

Another important issue is inserting human genes in animals. What percent of human genes does an organism have to contain before it is considered human? If humans have a special ethical status, does the presence of human genes in an organism change its ethical status? What about a genetically engineered mouse that produces a human sperm that is then used to conceive a human child?(10) Or a pig that contains human genes in order to grow organs that can be transplanted to humans?(11)

It is shocking that the FDA issued guidelines in September 1996 that allow animal-to-human transplants, even though a group of 44 top virologists, primate researchers, and AIDS specialists, opposed it. They attacked the FDA guidelines, saying that based on knowledge of past cross-species transmissions (e.g., AIDS, Herpes B, Ebola, and other viruses), using animals was not adequately justified for use in a handful of patients. Vast numbers of people could be injured or even killed if a new infectious agent were to be transmitted.(12) The FDA puts the responsibility for health and safety on local hospitals and medical review boards.

Recombinant DNA technology also has been applied directly to the human body. After mapping the entire genome, scientists discovered some disease-causing genes. They are now working to isolate those genes and develop molecular-level treatments. Although curing Alzheimers, nuscular dystrophy, and many other inherited diseases would make patients happy, unexpected results may occur. When applying gene therapy, a one-to-one correspondence between the gene and its function is assumed. Since genes interact in a horizontal manner, as scientists have shown, introducing a new gene could have unforeseen effects.(13)

Genetic manipulation in human beings always encompasses the possibility of designer genes that manipulate a child’s appearance, IQ, or behavior. According to a March of Dimes survey, 40 percent of Americans would use gene therapy to enhance their children’s looks or intelligence. Even picking your child’s gender has become a question of money. A Fairfax, Virginia-based genetics and in-vitro fertilization institute offers family balancing for approximately $3,000. Known as microsort, the male sperm is separated from the female one. In 2001, the institute treated around 60 couples a month and planned to double its production. Fortune Magazine calculated that the microsort market could be worth $200 million.(14)

There is also talk that people could be exploited as producers of certain substances. For example, a biotech corporation applied to the European Patent Office for a patent on a so-called pharm woman. The idea was to genetically alter women so that their breast milk would contain specialized pharmaceuticals.(15)

Related debates

There are many other largely debated topics in this field, but the most controversial one of all is human cloning life. This is divided into therapeutic cloning and reproductive cloning.

In therapeutic cloning, scientists produce embryos in culture dishes to harvest their stem cells. These then are used in further research, the long-term goal of which is to produce replacement organisms. Stem cells are undifferentiated and primitive cells that can be found in embryos as well as in an adult body.(16) Researchers intend to isolate stem cells so they can serve as a starter stock for growing replacement nerve, muscle and other tissue that might one day be used to treat patients with various diseases.(17) Even though this procedure sounds very promising, we should not overlook the fact that embryos are mass-produced to harvest stem cells. Once these have been isolated, the embryo becomes useless and disposable. The ethics of this procedure are questionable, since stem cells also could be harvested from an adult human body.

Reproductive cloning intends to implant such a cloned embryo into a woman’s uterus. Although this procedure is not safe for either the mother or the child, Severino Antinori announced that he and his team will soon produce the first cloned child. The Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research revealed that cloned mice possess subtle genetic defects that could eventually wreak havoc on the animals system. This means that even though a cloned child might appear completely normal at birth, it has to expect serious health problems later in life.(18)

There also are potential psychological risks for a cloned child. Dr. Thomas Murray worries about the child’s self-identity problem once he/she finds out that he/she is a clone and how he/she was conceived.(19) George Johnson, a professor at Washington University, opposes cloning because genetic variation is the chief defense our species has against an uncertain future. If we strip ourselves of it even partially, it is to endanger our species.

Conclusion

Recombinant DNA technology faces our society with problems unique not only in the history of science but also life on the Earth as well as legal approaches towards them. It places in human hands the capacity to redesign living organisms. It presents probably the largest ethical problem science has ever had to face. Our morality up to now has been to go ahead without restrictions to learn what we can about nature. Reconstructing nature was not part of the bargain. Going ahead in this direction may not be only unwise but also dangerous. Potentially it could breed new animal and plant diseases, new sources of cancer and novel epidemics.(20)

Since creation is in a perfect balance, interventions might have unforeseen effects. A book must be written by an author, a picture must be painted by an artist, and a poem must be written by a poet. Each piece of art has an artist who has an encompassing knowledge of his/her creation. If we do not understand that nature is a perfectly composed book, our writings will be no more than scribbles between the lines.

Footnotes

1. http://209.52.56.28/lexicon/g.html.
2. Lily E. Kay, The Molecular Vision of Life: Caltech, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Rise of the New Biology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), 26.
3. Herbert Gottweiss, Governing Molecules: The Discursive Politics of Genetic Engineering in Europe and the US (Cambridge MA: The MIT Press, 1998), 42.
4. Ibid., 46.
5. www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1968/index.html.
6. www.dartmouth.edu/artsci/courses/coco25/Cloning/The_History_of_Cloning.html.
7. http://library.thinkquest.org/24355/data/details/1985.html?tqskip1=1&tqtime=0508.
8. www.netlink.de/gen/hagelin.html.
9. www.psrast.org/jftrypt.htm.
10. Surrogate Fathers, New Scientist (31 Jan. 1998).
11. Robert Pool, Saviors, Discover, (May 1998): 53-57. (special issue.)
12. IP/BiodivNews, 1-24-97 or http://online.sfsu.edu/~rone/GE%20Essays/Redigning.htm#40.
13. Horizontal gene transfer refers to the transfer of genes to unrelated species by infection through viruses, through pieces of genetic material, DNA by being taken up into cells from the environment, or by unusual mating taking place between unrelated species. (Mae-Wan Ho, Genetic Engineering: Dream or Nightmare, 2d rev. [Continuum Pub Group: 2000),
14. The Economist (14 Apr. 2001): 22.
15. Andrew Kimbrell, The Human Body Shop: The Engineering and Marketing of Life (New York: Harper Collins, 1994), 191.
16. Popular Science (Jan. 2002): 58.
17. Scientific American (Jan. 2002): 45.
18. Gunjan Sinha, Popular Science (Jan. 2002)
19. Thomas Murray, Talk of the Nation broadcast, 24 Feb. 1997.
20. George Wald, The Case Against Genetic Engineering, in The Recombinant DNA Debate, eds. David A. Jackson and Stephen P. Stich (Prentice Hall College Div: 1979), 127-28.

Historical background

Dhimmi designates an indefinitely renewed contract through which non-Muslims have a specific status (but are not full citizens), have their property protected, and are ensured safe conduct in return for acknowledging Islam’s domination and paying the jizya (poll tax).(3) In early Islam, they were Christians, Jews, Magians, Samaritans, and Sabians.(4) The Prophet and the early caliphs showed religious tolerance and caution toward religious minorities.(5) The Ottoman sultans made slight changes, but basically followed the same attitude in a more structured fashion.

Dhimmis in the Ottoman State

Some assert that Ottoman society was divided into ruling (Muslim) and (non-Muslim) raaya classes. But it was more complicated than that, for Muslims and non-Muslims were referred to as raaya (followers, the ruled, or non-participants in government). As the Ottoman State was semi-theocratic, raaya should be understood in the biblical sense as the shepherd and the flock.(6)

Government personnel worked in three areas: religion and law, war and statecraft, and the bureaucracy. The first branch was restricted to Muslim-born subjects. The ulema devoted long years to theological, scholastic, and legal studies in order to become judges and professors. The latter two branches were reserved mainly for non-Muslims. Neither group was inferior to the Muslims.

The Ottoman system was so complex that we cannot determine whether there was religious or racial discrimination. After reforms during the nineteenth century, many intellectuals and ecclesiastics argued that applying a unified law would deprive them of their privileges.(7) The Ottoman system of government was holistic, considered all branches interwoven and interconnected, and was fairly well integrated, in socioeconomic matters but not in religious matters, at least in Turkish-majority areas.

The Millet System

Three days after Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror entered Constantinople (1453), he told everyone to go home and continue his or her occupation and religion. He supervised the election of a new Greek Patriarch, a monk named Genadius, who was elected by Synod and consecrated. He proclaimed the patriarch-elect in the most honorific terms, gave him the pastoral staff with his own hands, and said: Be patriarch, live with us in peace, and enjoy all the privileges of your predecessors.(8) Though other communities later were recognized in the same terms, the Greek Orthodox Church always had more privileges and stronger ties with the central government.

Gradually, dealing with minorities engendered the millet system. Controlling the minority communities through their local bishops and rabbis stopped, and the whole Orthodox Church was organized as Rum Milleti (Roman people). The patriarch collected and allocated the poll tax and served as his community’s temporal leader. He was assigned a ceremonial rank with three tugs (horsetails), allowed his own court and prison in Istanbul’s Fener district, and had unlimited civil jurisdiction over and responsibility for his community. The State assigned him other duties and enforced the laws that he laid down for his community.

Since Islamic law is corporate (not territorial) and Ottoman society was corporate in nature, the Ottoman State dealt with dhimmis as members of a community and not as individuals.(9) A community member was directly responsible for and accountable to the community. Thus the government protected the communities from internal and external aggression, while the community’s leaders managed its affairs. The Porte had to ratify the chosen leader, but this was a mere formality. Each millet’s leader represented his people, and these matters were dealt with through the Foreign Ministry. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch had the rank of vizier and was provided with a guard of Janissaries (soldiers).

The Christian Millet. Most Orthodox Christian Balkan territories had been included in the Patriarchate of Constantinople’s jurisdiction. But by the time of Ottoman conquest, the Slavonic branch in the Sultan’s dominion had split into three patriarchates: Ochrida, Trnovo, and Ipek. These divisions were racial, dynastic, and nationalistic, and not doctrinal. Thus the Conqueror placed all Orthodox Christians under the authority of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople and let him decide how to apportion the tax among them.

The sixteenth-century conquests in the Islamic lands and the capture of Cyprus and Crete brought many Orthodox Christians and the ancient patriarchates of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria under Muslim control. As the patriarch was influential with the sultan, the Porte made arrangements through which the Greek elements became dominant.(10)

The Jewish Millet. The Conqueror allowed the Jews, recognized as another millet, to settle in Istanbul. He appointed a haham basi (Chief Rabbi) with powers similar to those enjoyed by the patriarch. The haham basi was given precedence over the patriarch next to the head of ulema, and after the conquest, the Jews’ position improved. Although outcasts under the Byzantines, they now started holding various public offices.(11) Jews fleeing persecution in Spain and elsewhere were welcomed into Ottoman lands.

Each minority community was treated according to how it had been incorporated into the Ottoman State. Under Bayezid II and Mehmed the Conqueror, Muslims seem to have favored Jews over Christians, since Christians were suspected of being too sympathetic to Christian Europe. The Jews had no central authority to follow and be instigated by, save that of the office of haham basi, which the Porte could check easily. Almost all Jews were immigrants and brought their distinctive rituals, habits, and customs with them, Therefore, different regions inhabited by homogeneous groups were represented by different synagogues.

The Armenian Millet. In 1462, the Armenians became the last community recognized as a separate millet until the period of decline. Whereas the Patriarch was the most prominent ecclesiastical figure in the Orthodox Church and the Jews had no spiritual universal director, the head of Armenian Church did not reside within the Empire.

The Orthodox Church considered the Armenian church (Gregorian) heretical. Earlier, it had been as powerful as Orthodoxy. When the Armenians became a separate millet, neither little Armenia nor the Armenian provinces of the East, two important seats, were ruled by the Ottomans. Therefore, Mehmed II chose Horaghim, Gregorian bishop of Bursa, as the Armenian patriarch of Istanbul and gave him powers similar to those of the Orthodox patriarch and the haham basi.

Also belonging to this millet were all unclassified subjects, such as the Bogomils and the Paulicans, two heretical sects that originated from the Armenian church. Most Balkan Armenians accepted Islam after the area was overrun by the Ottoman armies. Remaining subjects have retained their particular faith until today. Other members included various Catholic and other Christian groups that the Orthodox Church considered heretical.

The devshirme and ghulam systems

This devshirme system was based on traditional views of dealing with prisoners of war. In the classical Islamic period, jurists advised immediate execution, allowing some or all to be ransomed or freed, exchanges for Muslim prisoners, or enslavement.(12)

Islam allowed slaves to be emancipated; the Ottomans did not. One-fifth of all captives entered the ghulam system (the sultan’s slave family), and were trained and allowed to rise within the system. Such slaves were recruited from Christians aged 10 to 20 years. The preferred ages were probably between 14 and 18, and boys younger than 12 or older than 20 were considered only in exceptional cases.(13)

Recruits were obtained through capture, purchase, gift, or tribute. Slaves not bought for the sultan or given to him were usually either captives or levied with the tribute boys. There was hardly any other way, since slaves passed too rapidly into the Muslim fold to have their children available for the system. The sons of the recruits (though already themselves Muslim) were eligible, but not their grandsons, because by then the grandchildren would most likely be Muslims. Reliable statistical data is rare, but based on contemporary ac-counts, in the sixteenth century probably 3,000 children were recruited annually. Those within the system might have reached as high as 80,000, and the total number recruited throughout the centuries might have been close to 2 million.

This exclusion of all other Muslims’ children and grandchildren lasted until Suleyman the Magnificent broke them. He allowed the Janissaries’ children to join their ranks or other parts of the system. This proved to be a fatal move, for it became the only hereditary institution after the sultanate.

At first, parents were anxious to keep their children out of the system. But later on, even Muslim families tried to get their children into it because of the prestige it conferred. Originally restricted to the sons of villagers and poor families, it eventually spread to the townsmen’s children. The earlier practice resulted in great social upward mobility; the later practice opened up a new way of accumulating wealth and prestige, and thus undermined the State.

This tribute system brought children from Austria, the Caucasus, the Crimea, and the Balkans. Those captured by raiders and corsairs were presented to the sultan as gifts. Otherwise, recruiting officers visited some villages every 4 years to fill their quota. The officer summoned the priest and got a list of children, visited the houses, and took the most suitable children. If he received more than required, the surplus was sold elsewhere.(14) Contemporary accounts say that it produced the ablest and most talented children.

These children became known as ghilman. The sultan had the absolute sovereignty over them. However, they felt honored by this title and tried to show their loyalty to him. The Ottoman system raised slaves to ministers of state, courtiers, husbands of princesses, rulers of the Islamic state, soldiers and generals, bureaucrats and prime ministers. Race was irrelevant, for only potential talent was considered.(15)

They were taught Turkish, Arabic, Persian, physical training, war affairs, administration, the Ottoman governing institutions, and so on. The successful and meritorious could expect to serve in some of the Empire’s highest positions. Its graduates became fully Muslim, as did those who served in the Ottoman armed forces. However, many non-Muslims served in respectable positions during the reigns of Murad II, Mehmed the Conqueror, and Salim I. Muslims and non-Muslims held provincial administration positions and were members of court slave families (e.g., the grand vizier, governors, princes, military officers, and so on).

Taxation

Dhimmis paid two special taxes: jizya (a tribute or a poll tax) and kharaj (land tax). Ottoman ulema ruled that this rule still was in use, but since all agricultural land belonged to the State, it applied to private holdings. Another tax was taken from all peasants. Many other dues levied on peasants and traders were heavier for dhimmis than for Muslims. Though the land tax was discontinued during the early days of Islam, the Ottomans continued to levy the poll tax in lieu of military service.(16) Interestingly enough, it was confused with land tax and the dhimmis were confused with the masses. The masses’ payment of the land tax thus was actually the dhimmis’ payment of the poll tax.(17)

Originally it was levied only on free men who could earn and afford to pay it. But later on, ministers, rabbinical representatives, the chief rabbi, teachers, slaughterers, and a few Jewish families in Istanbul were excluded. Many Christian families obtained a decree from the sultan that made them exempt. Gibb and Bowen estimate that probably only one-third of all eligible dhimmis paid this tax during the State’s later period.(18)

During the nineteenth century, the land tax was abolished (in principle) and yet retained as a compensation for military duty. Shortly thereafter, Istanbul’s people were exempted from it in toto, although it was still collected in the provinces. Until the republican era, all non-Muslims (except for Istanbul residents) paid only a military and a road tax.

Conclusion

The Ottoman State acted according to Islam and its own interests. It recognized each community’s rights and frequently protected them at the expense of its own citizens. It opened up state offices to non-Muslims as an incentive to become Muslim. Such a policy was unknown to the Europe of that time. However, the Ottomans did not spread the Islamic educational system among the non-Muslims to encourage their conversion, which constituted the state’s very raison d’etre.

Footnotes

1. Abu Jaber, book title/pub. info needed, 213.
2. H.A.R. Gibb and Harold Bowen, Islamic Society and the West (London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1950-), 1:43.
3. H.A.R. Gibb et al., eds., Encyclopedia of Islam, Dhimma (Leiden: Brill, 1960-).
4. M. Khadduri, War and Peace in the Law of Islam (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1955), 176-77.
5. Ibid., 173.
6. Abu Jaber, 212.
7. Carel Bertram, book title/pub. info needed, 127.
8. Ibid.
9. Stanford J. Shaw and Ezel K. Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1976-77), 1:151.
10. Ibid., 153.
11. Cyrus Adler et al., eds., The Jewish Encyclopedia, Turkey (New York and London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1901-06).
12. A. H. Lybyer, The Government of the Ottoman Empire in the Time of Suleiman the Magnificent (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913).
13. Ibid., 54.
14. Ibid., 46.
15. Vernon Parry, Elite Elements in the Ottoman Empire, in Governing Elites: Studies in Training and Selection, ed. Rupert Wilkinson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1969), 50-73.
16. Gibb and Bowen, Islamic Society, 253.
17. The Jewish Encyclopedia, Turkey.
18. Gibb and Bowen, Islamic Society, 255.

Although, there is a lack of theoretical and philosophical background to understand the homeschooling movement I would like to use some philosophy of

teaching theories to understand and analyze counter-culture and controversies in Mitchell L. Stevens’ book. The author tries to offer a broad understanding in the North Eastern American states in the homeschooling movement. The author focuses to answer why the homeschooling families walked away from one of the most central institutions of modern life and what do those families think about conventional schools. Stevens continues by saying that We inherit traditions of meaning that help define what we think and lend words to what we fell. I wanted to learn about the intellectual traditions from which home schooling had grown (Stevens, 2001, p.15). When I reviewed the book I wanted to discover what kind of inherited tradition and mentality he found or didn’t find in the book while I was writing this paper. The author’s perspective about the homeschooling movement seems to be more narrative and insightful than theoretical and philosophical, which a sociological study is supposed to rely on.

On the cover of the book Stevens talks about the great successes of home schooled children, their making headlines by winning national spelling bees and excelling at elite universities, but he does not extend the argument far enough. He does not talk about the experiences of these children, their feelings and ideas about being home schooled, or the structure of their educational curriculum. Although he mentions some studies about those children by saying that home schooled children are academically successful and remarkably well socialized he does not explain how and why homeschooling brings these results. This shows that Stevens is more concerned with the adult movement in homeschooling than with how it will affect the children’s world contrary to the title of the book.

While the book states that the vast majority of homeschooling parents were conservative Christian or evangelical Protestant there are some exceptions to that which make the movement harder to understand. These exceptions include families who are atheist, gay or single parent rather than all conservative Christian. I see a shift toward theories based on a postmodern approach because many parents have become skeptical about other types of modern schooling. Homeschooling families place great emphasis on their children’ showing initiative and being physically and psychologically healthy. For homeschooling families’ modernism does not have a capacity to fulfill the needs of young children because there is so much influence of commercial culture, including overly sexualized and secularized materials. While homeschooling families unmask the secular political ideology in regular public schooling, they come with their hidden agenda (religious or non-secular education) unlike in postmodernism. This is because postmodernism gives great emphasis on individual intention. Hlebowitsh says that postmodernists stress the value of individual initiative, the recognition of human intention, the unmasking of political ideology in knowledge, the taming of social control mechanism in the school, and the general idea that society is marked by conflicting interests of class, gender, and culture (Hlebowitsh, 2001, p. 119). Postmodernism is skeptical to see things as all good and perfect, but homeschooling families are pretty sure what they want out of home schooling. According to many homeschooling families, in this modern world individuals are not conscious about God and the importance of family ties, especially mother and child/children, are uniquely important. Consequently, the movement in the book seems to be not so new and very similar to early colonial New England School tradition in terms of its being exclusive and based on Bible lesson plans. In chapter three, entitled Natural Mothers and Godly Women, Stevens recalls Dame schooling that is based on women educators (widowed or unmarried) in the New England early colonial era. These women did not necessarily train to be a teacher but taught to read the Bible and lessons based on its Scriptures, which is very similar to the homeschooling movement today. Stevens book fails to do this, or describe some other types of historical ties behind the movement. I wonder if he intents to make this connection on page 15 by using the term inherit tradition in the homeschooling movement.

In the Homeschooling Journal, Debra Strayer (Stevens, 2001, p.66) says that:

As teaching parents, we are presented with a huge array of educationally important things to serve our children. Many things are considered essential, such as phonics and math. Many are deemed very important, such as writing and science, with our study of the Bible as the central diet. As we consider the many things our children simply must have, we tend to eliminate those things that are cumbersome and difficult to schedule

In this quote Strayer expresses the feelings of many homeschooling families by saying that other types of schooling are more heavily weighted on unnecessary courses and scheduling than core subjects’ courses. The homeschooling families like to eliminate those things from their children’s learning experience. While they make these arguments on the surface they tend to be subject-centered rather than child-centered. This is similar to one of the conservative philosophies of teaching theory, which is essentialism. In this type of teaching philosophy learning is primarily based on the transmission and protection of common core cultural knowledge. This common culture relies on the values of Western civilization and the ideal learning experience is strictly based on academic discipline. While those statements translate the homeschooling movement, the author does not tend to make any type of historical or philosophical connection to interpret and understand the movement. Because these parents do not count on their children’s ideas and feelings, they ignore the real view of their children and they only think of molding them into the shape that they want them to be. Thus, parents, not the children, have the authority to make the choices and offer selections.

According to Rousseau, who is the father of the child-centered approach, children are best educated in a free environment and schools tend to destroy the natural learning process. Having an educational agenda undermines the individual’s natural and spontaneous learning process. As is seen in this statement, what Rousseau proposed with child-centeredness was totally different than what homeschooling families intend to do. I think the author needs another term instead of child centered at page 88. I believe those children are successful because of subject or discipline centeredness of homeschooling movement but not because of the child-centeredness of the movement.

Although I find Stevens book very enlightening, I see some gaps in terms of its theoretical and philosophical background. The author perceives homeschooling as a new social movement, but the question about what type of new social movement stays unclear and/or unanswered. I also realize this gap comes from the nature of the homeschooling movement. Even though, I try to understand Stevens’ book based on some teaching theories, it is hard to frame the movement because of a wide range of homeschooling families’ backgrounds and their expectations from the movement. Stevens’ book offers a very insightful approach to understanding homeschooling families. One of the strongest sides of his book is its vast range of homeschooling designs and the richness of his survey sample distributions. In terms of his methodology, this increases the accuracy of the information he provides through surveying. This shows that the author reached out to many homeschooling families and learned a lot about their world. Finally, I find Stevens successful in his ability to reflect his experiences insightfully with homeschooling families behind the movement.

References

• Hlebowitsh, Peter S., (2001). Foundations of American education (3 ed.). Wadsworth T. Thomson Learning. Belmont, CA
• Stevens, Mitchell L., (2001). Kingdom of children: Culture and controversy in the homeschooling movement. Princeton University Press. Princeton, New Jersey

A: The sparrow hawk’s swooping contributes to the sparrow’s alertness and evolving skills of escape. Although rain, electricity, or fire sometimes harms people, no one curses them. Fasting may be difficult, but it provides the body with energy, activity, and resistance. A child’s immune system usually gains strength through illness. Gymnastics are not easy, but they are almost essential to bodily health and strength. People’s spirits are refined through worship and meditation as well as through illness, suffering, and hardship. These allow them to acquire Paradise, for God gives a large reward for a little sacrifice. Hardships and sufferings promote people to higher spiritual degrees, and will be returned manifold in the other world. This is why all Messengers experienced the most grievous hardships and sufferings.

Hardship, suffering, and calamity cause believers’ sins to be forgiven, warn them away from sins and the seductions of Satan and the carnal self, help them appreciate God’s blessings, and open the way to gratitude. Also, they urge the rich and healthy to be concerned about the ill and the poor and to help them. Those who have never suffered cannot understand the condition of those who are hungry, sick, or stricken with a calamity. In addition, these afflictions may help establish closer relations between different social sectors.

Q: What is the role of intention in fasting?

A: Intention has a prominent place in our actions, for the Messenger told us that our actions are judged according to our intentions. Intention is the spirit of our actions, for without it there is no reward. If you remain hungry and thirsty from daybreak to sunset without intending to fast, Allah does not consider it a fast. If you fast without intending to obtain God’s good pleasure, you receive no reward. So whatever one intends, one gets the reward thereof.

Those who have a firm belief in God, the other pillars of faith, and the intention to believe in them will be rewarded with eternal felicity in Paradise. But those who are determined not to believe, who have removed the inborn tendency to believe from their hearts, will be victims of their eternal determination and deserve eternal punishment. As for those with deeply ingrained unbelief and who have lost the capacity to believe, we read in the Qur’an: As for the unbelievers, it is the same whether you warn them or warn them not. They will not believe. God has set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing, and on their eyes there is a covering (2:6-7).

Q: What about those who say that fasting for so long is unhealthy or affects one’s job performance or even the nation’s development?

A: Human life is a composite of two distinct powers: the spirit and the flesh. Although they sometimes act in harmony, conflict is more usual “ conflict in which one defeats the other. If bodily lusts are indulged, the spirit grows more powerless as it becomes more obedient to those lusts. If one can control the desires of the flesh, place the heart (the seat of spiritual intellect) over reason, and oppose bodily lusts, he or she acquires eternity.

Compared with previous centuries, people may well be wealthier and enjoy more convenience and comfort. However, they are trapped in greed, infatuation, addiction, need, and fantasy much more than ever before. The more they gratify their animal appetites, the more crazed they become to gratify those appetites; the more they drink, the thirstier they get; the more they eat, the hungrier they get. They enter into evil speculations to feed their greed to earn still more, and sell their spirits to Satan for the most banal advantages. And so they break with true human values a little more each day.

To sacrifice one’s enjoyment of worldly pleasures has the same significance for human progress as roots have for a tree’s growth. Just as a tree grows sound and strong in direct relation to its roots’ soundness and strength, people grow to perfection whose striving to free themselves from selfishness so that they can live for others. 

Q: What spiritual practices and outlooks should one make a special effort to acquire during Ramadan?

A: Muhasaba (Self-Criticism or Self-Interrogation): Self-criticism may be described as seeking and discovering one’s inner and spiritual depth, and exerting the necessary spiritual and intellectual effort to acquire true human values and to develop the sentiments that encourage and nourish them. This is how one distinguishes between good and bad, beneficial and harmful, and how one maintains an upright heart. Furthermore, it enables a believer to evaluate the present and prepare for the future. Again, self-criticism enables a believer to make amends for past mistakes and be absolved in the sight of God, for it provides a constant realization of self-renewal in one’s inner world. Such a condition enables one to achieve a steady relationship with God, for this relationship depends on a believer’s ability to live a spiritual life and remain aware of what takes place in his or her inner world. Success results in the preservation of one’s celestial nature as a true human being, as well as the continual regeneration of one’s inner senses and feelings.

Tafakkur (Reflection):Reflection is a vital step in becoming aware of what is going on around us and of drawing conclusions from it. It is a golden key to open the door of experience, a seedbed where the trees of truth are planted, and the opening of the pupil of the heart’s eye. Due to this, the greatest representative of humanity, the foremost in reflection and all other virtues, upon him be peace and blessings, states: No act of worship is as meritorious as reflection. So reflect on God’s bounties and the works of His Power, but do not try to reflect on His Essence, for you will never be able to do that. By these words, in addition to pointing out the merit of reflection, the glory of mankind, upon him be peace and blessings, determines the limits of reflection and reminds us of our limits.

Shukr (Thankfulness): True thankfulness in one’s heart is manifested through the conviction and acknowledgment that all bounties are from God, and then ordering one’s life accordingly. One can thank God verbally and through one’s daily life only if personally convinced, and if one willingly acknowledges that his or her existence, life, body, physical appearance, and all abilities and accomplishments are from God, as are all of the bounties obtained and consumed. This is stated in: Do you not see that God has made serviceable unto you whatsoever is in the skies and whatsoever is in the earth, and has loaded you with His bounties seen or unseen? (31:20), and: He gives you of all that you ask Him; and if you reckon the bounties of God, you can never count them (14:34).

Of course, one should try to increase in all virtues during Ramadan, as this is the best time of year to do so.

Increasing brainpower

We can improve our brain’s memory, creativity, and intelligence by our own conscious effort and free will. Even though our brain is made of nerve tissues, it can grow if it is used, just like a muscle. Scientists are constantly amazed at its plasticity “ the ability to grow. Even for people over 80 years old, significant life-quality improvements can be achieved through intellectual activity.

Researchers at the University of California-Los Angeles studied the brains of 20 dead people. After examining the dendrites (tree-like communicating arms between muscles), they discovered that their length increased proportionally with a person’s education and lifestyle. Those with a college education and a mentally active lifestyle had longer dendrites than those with less education and an intellectually inactive lifestyle.

Animal studies seem to confirm the same result. For example, rats exposed to maze learning show an increase in dendrite growth and enhanced problem-solving ability. They form new synapses between neurons, which facilitates further learning. When they are moved to dull, non-challenging environments, dendritic material decreases and synapses regress. Neurons can grow and change throughout one’s life.

French philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes (1596-1650) once said: It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.(1) In this ever-changing information society, successful adaptation depends on expanding our minds through learning and creativity. Knowledge helps us advance to happiness, because happiness usually is tied to less stress (in our career or daily life), gives us greater travel and leisure opportunities, more autonomy and even more money. Love grows in a relaxed and happy atmosphere, so even emotional well-being depends on improving our brainpower.

By stimulating our brain more intensively, a curious thing happens: The inter-connections between neurons increase by developing new dendrites. These surplus connections make our brain work better, improve our memory, and protect us against diseases like Alzheimer’s by providing alternative connections.

Learning and brainpower

An increased sense of self-confidence and awareness originates from a large fund of knowledge. Even the number and variety of friends we have is directly proportional to the number of topics of interest and discussion we acquire. Knowledge also improves our ability to foresee future political, economic, and historical trends. Moreover, an improved understanding of history and cultures help us avoid the hazard of prejudice.

Understanding the world is like a jigsaw puzzle. The more pieces that we can fit in, the clearer the image and the greater the urge to learn and fill in more pieces. The more we learn, the more we wish to continue learning. Increasing knowledge is like an avalanche; for it gains a momentum of its own once it starts. Perseverance and some initial prompting are required, but the rewards soon pay off. Minds are kept young by continual use, and mentally active people tend to live longer. Learning is as important to our brain as exercise is to our body. Hence the process of learning should not cease right after graduating from high school or college.

Students are presented with an enormous amount of information to learn and memorize during the academic year. During vacation time, however, they shy away from reading or learning even about non-curricular topics because of the mistaken notion that the brain has a limited capacity and that new information will overwrite previous information. The brain has a virtually unlimited capacity to absorb, sort, and retain information. But stimulation is required. An athlete improves by exercise and training; the brain gets into shape the more it is used.

According to Life magazine’s July 1994 feature article on Brain Calisthenics, Golden claims that exercising your brain may do as much for your health as exercising your body. Research on an elderly group of nuns in Minnesota revealed that a daily diet of brain games kept them healthy, youthful, and relatively free from Alzheimer’s and other degenerative brain disorders. And, they were happy, active, and mentally sharp well into their nineties. Researchers attribute this to the brain’s capacity to grow new connections after receiving the proper kind of stimulation. Although the connection between continued brain activity and health remains unclear, we can say that neural stimulation seems to have a direct role in keeping the brain and body balanced, energetic, and healthy. And, it is surmised that increased brain stimulation provides more pronounced and long-lasting benefits.

We can increase our dendrites by engaging in newer activities. When we learn something, we use our whole brain and build new brain circuits. But once something becomes a routine, we only use a small portion of our brain, leaving the rest to atrophy. To prevent the loss or actually to increase the number of dendrites, they must be stimulated. In a Life magazine interview published in July 1994, Arnold Scheible, head of UCLA’s Brain Research Institute, suggested: The important thing is to be actively involved in areas that are unfamiliar to you. Anything that’s intellectually challenging can probably serve as a kind of stimulus for dendritic growth, which means it adds to the computational reserves in your brain.

However, the article pointed out a caveat for the occasional brain developer. It seems that although learning a new skill creates more neural dendritic connections, the growth stops once the skill is learned and the new connections may actually atrophy. Thus, the brain needs random and interactive exercise so that it cannot learn the exercise so well that it becomes a routine and so that it can better learn new things continually.

Learning is an art that requires practical tools to gather a broad knowledge base. For example, Dr. S. Ray has an interesting suggestion: Look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary and then write a reminder by the word indicating where you encountered it, whet-her in a book, a newspaper, or a conversation. If you saw it in Newsweek, write NW beside the word. If your professor mentioned it, write his name next to the word. If you come across a word in this article, put a smiling face near it. Next time you encounter this word, your previous annotation will help you form a better association and you will remember the word better.

Once you start learning new words, it is a pleasant surprise to encounter them again. Each new word becomes a personal friend that reinforces a memory. Consider the dictionary one of your most interesting friends. The more words we learn, the more we become aware of our surroundings. Words enrich our memory. Words form the thread on which we string our experiences, said the British philosopher Aldous Huxley (1894-1963).

Physical activity and brainpower

Physical activity increases mental function. Exercise induces the growth of capillaries (tiny blood vessels) in the brain. Aging can lead to the brain receiving less blood. Exercise throughout life works against the decreased mental functioning associated with old age. Yet, one must not overemphasize physical exercise.

In their book Healthy Pleasures, Ornstein (a psychologist) and Sobel (a physician) argue that our current health practices should be shifted toward a more intellectual approach. They claim that diets and physical exercises can punish and even harm the body, and that they might have side-effects and only a limited effectiveness. They opine that some of the rigorous body controls we tend to practice are more linked to the Protestant work ethic than real health benefits. Hence going to the gym is a work-out.

Stress and brainpower

One side-effect of stress is dullness in the brain. Therefore, whatever removes stress increases brainpower. There are several relatively new methods to improve brainpower (intelligence, creativity, learning ability). For example, listening to a precise combination of audio signals embedded on a cassette or CD beneath soothing music and environmental sounds can give the brain a very specific audio stimulus that gently creates deep meditation, removes stress, and creates emotional healing at a deep level. This causes new connections to be created in the brain.

This is accompanied by a deep, trance-like meditative state in which the brain produces a whole host of pleasurable neurochemicals, such as endorphins. Such a trance or meditation can be attained easily during deep and concentrated prayer. A soothing and relaxing atmosphere can be achieved during chanting, remembrance, or reciting holy texts and hymns.

The new pathways caused by these meditative states connect and synchronize the brain’s hemispheres, thereby causing whole brain functioning. The improvements in brainpower include learning, intuition, mental clarity, creativity, focus and concentration, and intelligence. This research is backed by Centerpointe Institute, which has a commercial product (Holosync) based on the above principle.

Stress also is tied to the burdens we are obliged to carry. Usually we think that we control our lives entirely and thus can control everything around us. As this is not even near the truth, the resulting condition is stress accompanied by depression. Again, a fine balance between faith in destiny and free will help us remove this stress and live an alleviated and spiritually relieved life. Said Nursi analyzes this concept in his Twenty-sixth Word.(2)

In addition to removing stress, the nervous system’s reorganization of itself to a new and higher level increases the stress threshold. At that point, many uncomfortable, dysfunctional feelings and behaviors go away, even if they might have been persistent until then. This is a deep and dramatic change in mental health: the release of anger, fear, and sadness, as well as the release of self-defeating behaviors, childhood traumas, and limiting decisions. Once these are gone, we can expect better relationships to emerge.

Thus it is like a virtuous cycle, because people who reach higher levels want to move to deeper meditation levels, just as athletes increase their mileage after mastering a certain distance. In these in-creased levels, the mind expands, grows, and becomes self-aware to a greater extent. Perhaps it also experiences a deeper meditative experience.

Health and brainpower

Adding years to your life and life to your years have always been challenging. The first one has been achieved for some, as life expectancy in developed countries increased by 30 years during the twentieth century due to improved food supply, housing, medicine, and many other factors. However, research in the last few decades proves that one can become even smarter by dendrite generation. At first, researchers told us that life-long physical training was one way to keep in good health. Now, since scientists know that the brain can be developed and enlarged, brain calisthenics have become even more important. The age-old dilemma of mind over matter has been resolved in favor of the mind.

A group of researchers has demonstrated that pleasure and positive states of mind are better for our health. This new intellectual approach to health is not only more powerful, but also has no side effects. Central to this claim are recent findings that even getting an education may add as much as 10 years to your health. That is why National Geographic featured John de Rosen in its 1986 book The Incredible Machine, which discussed old age. De Rosen, an artist, continued to paint until the week he died at age 91. The book notes: Some scientists believe that retirement to a sedentary lifestyle initiates or aggravates medical problems, thus shortening life. According to a study of retired people, adults over 65 can learn a creative skill, like oil painting, as readily as younger students. So retiring from a job in a sense means retiring from life unless supplemented by some other (preferably new) activity.

Investigating mental processes and brain efficiency

With their new imaging machines, scientists literally look into the brain and photograph the paths of mental processing to learn how the brain handles information. Each of the 100 billion neurons has dendrites (receptors), a central processor, and a cable to send the messages to the next neuron. Some years ago, scientists thought that these physical aspects were fixed at birth. Then Marion Diamond, a pioneer brain researcher who dissected Einstein’s brain, published Enriching Heredity. In it, she claimed to have found that the key areas of Einstein’s brain were very rich in dendrites due to the increased usage, and thus established that the brain is not fixed by heredity.

Another aspect of brainpower is efficiency. Dr. Richard Haier, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, used PET (positron emission tomography) scan images of brain metabolism to indicate mental efficiency. Newsweek (29 February 1988) reported his finding that smarter brains use less energy. Wired (May 1994) introduced to the general public his first works using PET to analyze the brain changes of Tetris players. In this article, he revealed the importance of neural efficiency. In other words, give a smart brain a hard cognitive task, like Tetris, and it will quickly learn to solve it using less of the brain and less rigorously. Less efficient brains seem to have difficulty localizing the task to the most appropriate processing centers. Therefore, there is wasted brain energy and needless redundancy (noise) in neural-net processing activity.

Newsweek (27 March 1988) featured Haier’s PET scans of SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) takers. The outcome seemed to differentiate be-tween sexes. Smart men who scored above 700 on the SAT math section worked their brains harder (less efficiently) than smart women. The PET images reveal how efficiently the brain works when processing a cognitive task. Therefore, before and after PET images may show how smart the brain, or neural-cognitive system, is as a function of how fast it learned how to minimize extraneous brain processing areas and focus energy on smaller, more productive areas.

We have been led to believe that we use very little of our brain. Ironically, the smarter the person is, the less of his or her brain seems to be involved in any particular task. It seems that dendrites use the shortest or most feasible path possible, and that the more numerous and longer the dendrites are, the more likely they are to have shorter paths between the nodes in the brain’s neural network. When the mind starts to process a task, it apparently engages a greater area of the brain to feel it out. However, the smarter brain-mind system will narrow in on the brain’s most appropriate processing area(s). Then, the rest of the brain is released to do something else, such as noisy chatter or just rest (which is rare). A less intelligent system might use more of the brain than is necessary. This may create a source of noise on the neural-net that distracts, disrupts, or derails the fast and efficient (consistent and accurate) data processing by the appropriate brain center(s).

Brain efficiency seems to be highly correlated with intelligence (or brainpower). Apparently, the less moving parts the less friction and noise! This would agree with certain research findings of meditators whose quieter and more alpha- and theta-dominant brains appear to be better at various cognitive and mental reflex tasks.

Conclusion

In conclusion, brainpower depends on many things: daily diet, physical and mental exercise, emotional state, stress, heredity and so on. It is not fixed or static, but has the ability to change and progress, so one can improve it by a combination of techniques that suit the individual. The discovery of new or improving existing techniques is open for further research in cognitive science.

Footnotes

1. http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/Mind/Descartes.html#Descartes.
2. The Words is available online at:www.sozler.com.tr/risnur/warning_word.htm.

References

• Centerpointe Institute, Holosync, http://www.trans4mind.com/holosync/.
• Diamond, Marion. Enriching Heredity: The Impact of the Environment on the Anatomy of the Brain. Free Press: 1988.
• Ornstein, R. and D. Sobel. Healthy Pleasures. Addison-Wesley, 1989.
• Poole, R. M. (ed.) The Incredible Machine. National Geographic Society: 1992.
• Report from the Biomedical Newsletter. Lippincott-Raven Publishers, n.d.
• Sahelian, Ray. Be Happier Starting Now: A Medical Doctor Explores the Fascinating Field of Happiness. Longevity Research Center: 1995. See Chapter 9.
• www.brain.com.

Currently, some religious scholars in the Islamic world denounce music. This paper analyzes the Islamic perspective on music and singing, and concludes that using music as a therapeutic agent in medicine is not forbidden.

Documented evidence shows the power of music can be tapped to heal the body, strengthen the mind, and unlock the creative spirit. Published papers and journal articles offer dramatic accounts of how doctors, musicians, and healthcare professionals use music to deal with everything from anxiety to cancer, high blood pressure, chronic pain, dyslexia, and even mental illness. During childbirth, music can relieve expectant mothers’ anxiety and help release endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers, and thereby dramatically decrease the need for anesthesia.

Exposure to sound, music, and other acoustical vibrations can have a lifelong effect on health, learning, and behavior, for such exposure stimulates learning and memory and strengthens one’s listening abilities. Music has been used as a treatment or cure from migraines to substance abuse.

One thousand years ago, Muslim physicians were in the forefront of medicine and used innovations and therapeutic techniques that are now considered modern. They treated mental illnesses by confining patients in asylums with twenty-first-century techniques of music therapy. In Fez, Morocco, an asylum for the mentally ill was built early in the eighth century, and asylums for the insane were built in Baghdad (705), Cairo (800), and Damascus and Aleppo (1270). In addition to baths and drugs, the mentally ill received kind and benevolent treatment, and were exposed to highly developed music-based therapy and occupational therapy. Special choirs and live bands were brought daily to present singing, musical, and comical performances to patients.

Malik al-Mansur Sayf al-Din Qalawun built the al-Mansuri hospital in Cairo (1284). Its most outstanding characteristic was that, just like today’s advanced hospitals, provisions were made to entertain patients with light music. Professional storytellers were appointed to narrate stories and jokes (radio, TV, and computers perform these functions today). People who called the faithful to prayer would sing religious songs in their melodious voices before the morning call to prayer; so that afflicted patients might forget their suffering. This hospital still renders such services today.

Medical benefits

Music therapy has been lost for more than 1,000 years in the Muslim world and in the West. In the last three decades or so, the West has shown tremendous interest in using music therapy to treat several diseases and ailments. No one knows exactly how music heals, but it looks like our brains are wired to respond to it.

Dr. Clive Robbins, a co-founder of the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy at New York University in New York City, says: “There is something intrinsically musical about the brain’s neurological structure and the muscular function of the human organism. At a nonverbal level, music activates our minds, integrates our attention, and seems to help regulate some body functions.”(2) He has treated a child afflicted with cerebral palsy with music therapy in order to teach the child how to balance his body, coordinate his limbs’ movement, and communicate. It has made him motivated and intent.

The right song seems to work in more than one way-distracting us from pain, boosting one’s mood, reviving old memories, and even prompting the body to match its rhythms. Music has long been appreciated for its calming effects, but new research shows it also may have the power to restore and keep us healthy. Soothing sounds, from Tibetan chants to Beethoven symphonies, are being given scientific credit for preventing colds, easing labor pains, and even boosting anti-aging hormones. One study found that surgery patients who listened to comforting music recovered more quickly and felt less pain than those who did not. The International Journal of Arts Medicine reports that infants in intensive care units go home three days earlier, eat better, and gain more weight if the staff talks and sings to them.

Clinical studies and anecdotal evidence from music therapists suggest that the sound of music is soothing and comfortable. For example, music is credited with lowering cortisol, a stress hormone, as much as 25 percent; boosting endorphins, the body’s natural opiates or feel-good drugs; reducing pain after surgery and reducing the need for sedatives and pain relievers; making patients recover from surgery faster and with less pain; possibly preventing colds; raising blood levels of Immunoglobin A (immune system fighter) to a whopping 14.1 percent; and easing labor without drugs. It also seems to help premature infants in intensive care; stimulate the brain’s neural connections and promote children’s spatial ability and memory; lower blood pressure as much as 5 points, reduce heart rate, improve cardiac output, and relax muscle tension; and manage non-pharmacological pain and discomfort.

But these are not all of its benefits, for research shows that music also improves the mood and mobility of people with Parkinson’s, decreases nausea during chemotherapy, helps patients participate in medical treatment, decreases length of hospital stay, relieves anxiety and reduces stress, eases depression, enhances concentration and creativity, brings positive changes in mood and emotional states, increases awareness of self and environment, gives a sense of control over life through successful experiences, provides an outlet for expressing feelings, improves memory recall and thereby contributes to reminiscence and satisfaction with life. In addition, music therapy may allow for emotional intimacy with families and caregivers, relaxation for the entire family, and meaningful time spent together in a positive, creative way.

Exciting new research suggests that our brains respond to music almost as if it were medicine. Music may regulate some body functions, synchronize motor skills, stimulate mind and even make us smarter. According to Suzanne Hanser, D. Ed., a lecturer at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Social Medicine: “There is no set prescription or a particular piece of music that will make everyone feel better or more relax. What counts is musical taste, kinds of memories, feelings and associations a piece of music brings to mind. Some people relax to classical music, others like the Moody Blues. The key is to individualize your musical selections.”(3)

Depression

Research conducted at the Stanford University School of Medicine provides some interesting results. For one group of 20 people aged between 61 and 86, moods rose and depression fell when they listened to familiar music they selected, on their own or with the help of a music therapist, while practicing various stress-reduction techniques. A control group who missed out on the music and the exercises saw no improvement during the 8-week study period. It helps to perform gentle exercises, depending on one’s fitness level, while the music plays. Movements should be light and flowing. Breathe to the music, and gently come to rest when the music ends.

Insomnia

A study from the University of Louisville School of Nursing Research indicates that 24 out of 25 people with sleeping problems nod off more quickly, sleep longer, or get back to sleep more easily after listening to classical and New Age music. The music must be quiet and melodic, have a slow beat and few, if any, rhythmic accents. To be effective, one should skip the after-dinner coffee or tea and avoid telephone calls and TV after 9 p.m. Softer and quieter music should be played as bedtime approaches. Listen to the music in bed with a tape recorder or a CD player equipped with a silent on/off switch. One should lie quietly and take even, deep breaths.

Stress

Many studies have found that soothing melodies can ease anxiety and quiet both blood pressure and heart rate even under very stressful conditions. Everyday stress also responds to music. Select music that grabs your attention and, at the same time, relax your body so that all of your worries slip away. Slow music, like a love song sung by an accomplished singer or a calm instrumental piece may be perfect. If a slow tune gives your mind time to fret or obsess, switch to something livelier. Sit or lie down in a comfortable position and where you will not be disturbed. After a few minutes, perform a relaxation exercise.

Pain

One Yale University School of Medicine study found that people who listened to their favorite music while awake during a surgical procedure needed smaller amounts of sedatives and pain medication than those who did not. Music therapists and researchers say that physical discomfort from post-operative pain to chronic aches can be eased with flowing melodies and distracting rhythms. Dr. Alicia A. Clair, a board-certified music therapist and professor and director of music therapy at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, says that music can bring transitory relief from short-term and long-term pain and discomfort, such as arthritis and osteoporosis. Gentle and soothing stress-reducing music, which can relax and distract the mind, is helpful. Martha Burke, a board-certified music therapist in Durham, North Carolina, says: “Gently flowing music or music with a slow, steady pulse can help promote relaxation, which can then alter a patient’s perception of pain. Soothing music can lower the heart rate and breathing rate, leading to further relaxation, and reduces tension that comes with the pain. We know music is so incredibly complex–it has tempo, rhythm, melody, and harmony. And so it stimulates the brain in many ways at once.”(4)

Brain damage

Samuel Wong, a Harvard-trained physician based in New York City, plays musical instruments to help patients with brain damage (from strokes) and Alzheimer’s reconnect to the world. He is also music director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the Honolulu Symphony. “When brain damage (from stroke, Alzheimer’s, etc.) leaves a devastated mental landscape, music ‘builds a bridge’ that allows patients to reconnect with the outside world. The study of medicine has informed my performance of music, and my learning of music has deepened my role in healing,”(5) he says. In 1996, researchers at Colorado State University tried giving 10 stroke victims 30 minutes of rhythmic stimulation each day for three weeks. Compared with untreated patients, they showed significant improvements in their ability to walk steadily. People with Parkinson’s enjoyed similar benefits. Stroke victims and patients with Parkinson’s walked more steadily and with better balance and speed if they practiced while hearing a balanced metrical beat or a piece of music with a powerful, even beat. A musical beat from any genre seemed to provide a rhythmic cue, which has a powerful, organizing effect on the brain’s motor skills—it helps harmonize movement almost at once, according to researchers. Scottish researchers have found that a daily dose of music significantly brightens the moods of institutionalized stroke victims. When daily music therapy was administered for 12 weeks, the patients were less depressed and anxious, and more stable and sociable than other patients in the same building. Music therapy also has proved useful in managing Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.

Sounds of healing

Mitchell L. Gaynor, MD, director of medical oncology and integrative medicine at New York’s Strang Cancer Prevention Center (affiliated with the Cornell Medical Center), says: “More doctors are seeing a connection between harmonious sound and health. If we are around very harmonious people and harmonious vibrations and harmonious sounds, we begin to feel better. I have never found anything more powerful than sound and voice and music to begin to heal and transform every aspect of people’s lives. It can really change people’s lives.”(6) “We know that music is capable of enhancing the body’s immune function, lowering heart rate, lowering stress-related hormones like cortisol that raise our blood pressure and depress our immune systems. It also trims complications after heart attack, calms anxiety, slows breathing and increases production of endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers. Eighty percent of the stimuli that reach our brains come through our ears.” (7) “Even before birth, music makes a difference. Hearing is the first sense to develop, when the fetus is only 18 weeks old (Qur’an 32:9). We know that the unborn child hears for literally half the pregnancy and is affected profoundly by what it hears. Studies show that music by Mozart and Vivaldi actually can bring down fetal heart rate, calm brain waves, and reduce the baby’s kicking. Rock music, on the other hand, appeared to drive fetuses to distraction, greatly increasing kicking.”(8) “Our bodies are 70 percent water, and thus excellent conductors for sound and vibration. We do not hear just with our ears, but literally feel vibration’s sound with every cell in our body. Disharmony and noise, whether from traffic, the boss yelling at us about a deadline, or a jackhammer on the street can make us stressed, depressed, and pessimistic–all of which depress our immune systems. That is why disharmony can eventually lead to disease.”(9) “Our own voices are very underutilized healing tools. Singing is a great way to tap music’s healing power. If you are self-conscious, try chanting. Anyone can do it, and you can’t do it wrong. We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg as far as the incredible power of sound to affect every cell and every organ system in our bodies.”(10) The Qur’an says: He fashioned him in due proportion and breathed into him something of His spirit. And He gave you (the faculties of) hearing and sight and feeling (and understanding). Little thanks do you give! (32:9, 16:78, 67:23). Dr. Keith Moore, professor and chairman of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Toronto’s School of Medicine, writes in his most popular textbook on human embryology that the human embryo first gets the ears (hearing), then the eyes (sight), and next the brain (feeling and understanding or mental faculties) in that order, as mentioned in the above Qur’anic verses. On the other hand, very loud music with sounds louder than 90 decibels cause stress and ear damage. Pierce J. Howard, Ph.D., director of the Center for Applied Cognitive Studies in Charlotte, NC, says: “Very loud music creates an altered state of consciousness akin to an alcoholic or drug-induced stupor that can become addictive.”(11)

The Mozart effect

Don Campbell, a composer, music researcher and teacher, healer and the author of The Mozart Effect, learned that he had a potentially fatal blood clot in an artery just below his brain. He shrunk the blood clot from more than 1.5-inch length to one-eighth of an inch by humming quietly for three to four minutes at a time, up to seven times a day. He did this for three weeks before he went back for a second brain scan. In The Mozart Effect, he writes: “You know music can affect your mood: it can make you feel happy, enchanted, inspired, wistful, excited, empowered, comforted, and heroic. Particular sounds, tones and rhythms can strengthen the mind, unlock the creative spirit, and miraculously, even heal the body. Exposure to sound, music, and other forms of vibration, beginning in-utero, can have a life long effect on health, learning and behavior.”(12) In conclusion, one should listen to a piece of music that one finds inspirational and uplifting. Dr. Ahmed al-Kadi of Florida’s Akbar Clinic conducted research on the healing power of listening to Qur’anic recitations. There is an urgent need for conducting more research on music therapy by Muslim physicians in the West and in the Muslim world.

Footnotes

1. Cayce, Edgar, “Readings on Music: Healing.” 1944. A free handout distributed by ARE (Association for Research and Enlightenment, 215, 67th St., Virginia Beach, VA 23451)
2. Nordoff, Paul and Clive Robbins, Therapy in Music for Handicapped Children, London, Gollancz, 1992
3. Cromie, William J., “Treating ills with music, from Anxiety to Alzheimer’s from Pain to Parkinson’s.” Harvard University Gazette, 22 August 2002
4. Burke, M. & Thomas, K., “Use of Physioacoustic Therapy to Reduce Pain During Physical Therapy for Total Knee Replacement Patients Over Age 55,” in Music Vibration and Health, Wigram, T. & Dileo, Ch. (Ed.), Jeffrey Books, Cherry Hill, NJ, USA, 1997
5. Noonan, Peggy. “Take two tunes and call me in the morning” USA Weekend Magazine-Health. Dec. 19, 1999
6. Gaynor, M. L., Sounds of Healing: A Physician Reveals the Therapeutic Power of Sound, Voice, and Music. Broadway Books, 1999
7. Gaynor, quoted by Peggy Noonan, Ibid 8 Gaynor, quoted by Peggy Noonan, Ibid
8. Gaynor, Ibid
9. Gaynor, Ibid
10. Howard, P. J. The Owner’s Manual for the Brain: Everyday Applications from Mind-Brain Research. Bard Press, 1999
11. Campbell, D., The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit. New York: Avon Books, 1997

References

• Alvin, J., Music Therapy. Basic Books, Inc. Publishers, New York. 1975.
• Campbell, D., The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit. New York: Avon Books, 1997.
• Coleman, J. M. et al. “The Effects of the Male and Female Singing and Speaking Voices on Selected Physiological and Behavioral Measures on Premature Infants in the Intensive Care Unit.” Int. J. Arts Med. 5, no. 2 (1997): 4-11.
• Gaynor, M. L., Sounds of Healing: A Physician Reveals the Therapeutic Power of Sound, Voice, and Music. Broadway Books: 1999.
• Gerber, S., “The Sound of Healing. Every Culture in the World Has Used Sound and Music To Heal. Finally We Are Catching Up.” Vegetarian Times, 247 (March 1998): 68-74. Harrar, S., “Got Pain? Got the Blues? Try the MUSIC CURE.” Prevention 51, no. 18 (1995): 100.
• Howard, P. J. The Owner’s Manual for the Brain: Everyday Applications from Mind-Brain Research. Bard Press: 1999,
• Moore, K. L. and Persaud, T. V. N. The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology. Philadelphia: Saunders W. B. Co., 1998.
• Syed, I. B. “Medicine and Medical Education.” In Islamic Perspectives in Medicine, edited by S. Athar. Indianapolis: American Trust Publications, 1993, 45-56.

Perhaps Tanzanian president Nyerere (1968) was right when he defined development in the following terms: development of the people, roads, buildings, the increase of crop output and other things of this nature are not development; they are only tools of development. An increase in the number of school buildings only if these things can be sold, and money used for other things which improve health, comfort and understanding of the people. Every proposal must be judged by the criterion of whether it serves the purposes of development and the purpose of development is the people.(1)

The existing situation

The concept of development is indivisible from the characteristics of individuals living in a given society or culture, because their own attitudes, beliefs, prejudices, and values influence their actions while playing their respective roles. If the goal of development is people, we can no longer ignore their normative structure, value system, and indigenous culture.

Culture must be an integral part of development. Development cannot be patterned on an outside model. Culture is an all-embracing concept that includes all aspects of human life, a œcomplex whole, which includes knowledge, art, beliefs, morals, law, custom and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.(2)

If we look at the western concept of development, the scene is quite unfavorable for the poor third world. Dogmas of societal development that have been developed by western theorists purport to provide a holistic approach to society. Solutions are global in nature, and therefore applicable to all societies irrespective of the unique indigenous norms and values that distinguish individual societies for each other. In the last few years, universalistic western norms and values have been introduced to “ rather enforced in “ the development process.

Indigenous norms and values cannot be reconciled with the spirit of capitalism, which is central to most Eurocentric development agencies. Imposing western norms that damage and often destroy indigenous values has come to be accepted as a primary necessity of western-style development, although this is not clear in the ongoing discourse. As long as an exploitative world economic system founded upon capitalism remains the dominant world economic ideology driving the first world’s relations with the third world, development cannot be pursued from the inside. One consequence of this is that cultural reconstruction conceals real diversities in society. One example is meeting the needs of the small elite to the exclusion of those of the broad majority. Since most of the planners in many third world countries belong to the comparatively affluent and higher occupational strata, they differ in training and education from the majority of the population. Given this reality, their ideas and concepts of development differ from those of ordinary people. The kind of education they receive is largely western-oriented, as many of them are trained in the first world’s universities and colleges.

Western-style development

Let’s briefly review some theoretical explanations concerning the western view of development.

The underlying thesis of modernization, the belief in a universal Eurocentric concept of truth and the primacy of instrumental reason, cannot be equated with a genuine respect for indigenous norms and values. It is fair to state that modernization has the most negative effects on traditional norms and values. In fact, today indigenous values are treated with even less respect than before, for they are believed to have lost their significance as the major stumbling point on the path to modernity. Talcott Parsons writes that adopting universal values and norms is a key to modernity and that the end-product is development.3 Max Weber based his work on the belief that as western society develops, more of its members act in ways guided by the principles of rationality and less by customs of tradition.4 He sees much of this distinction in terms of a fundamental contrast of ideas and values. In his view, the coming of the modern era represents the social birth of the individual as a relatively free agent not bound by rigid and unquestioning conformity to past tradition.

Therefore development, according to modernization theory, depends upon so-called traditional and primitive values being displaced by modern ones, and the view that substantial economic growth cannot occur without changes in, say, technology, the level of capital investment, and market demand. However, quite a bit of contrary evidence shows that such growth does not always require major alterations to value systems and social institutions. For example, Gusfield points out that the traditional religion of Islam has been reinforced by the diffusion of modern technology, particularly transport, which makes hajj a far more practicable proposition for many people who could never hope to make it otherwise.5 At the same time, Mair argues that because making hajj is an expensive proposition for most Muslims, they must exercise great care with household revenue and other economic growth-related activities to be able to afford it.6

Karl Marx’s philosophy paints a very negative view of indigenous value patterns’ function in the development process.7 Ironically, Marxism identified development as the modern western ideal.8 This is the theoretical background from which dependency theory emerges, a theory that is reluctant to allow the introduction of respect for indigenous thought into its philosophy. œThe traditional sector is seen as unproductive and as an obstruction to the development of an economy with its own independent dynamism.9

Some negative side-effects

What does today’s developed world (in western terms) look like? Social peace and harmony continue to be disrupted by such development.

Development, which used to be a means to an end, now has become an end in itself. It tends to increase the frustration, relative poverty, and feelings of deprivation among those who live in the third world. Media reinforces this view by projecting western-style development, now termed globalization, in such a way that third world people must die for it. The world is not becoming a global village, as widely proclaimed, but a cage in which the parrot of third world development is enthralled. The West, in its capacity as the parrot’s master, treats it and feeds it as it wishes (usually in the form of aid).

The aftereffects of such development models (e.g., free trade, deregulation, privatization, and structural adjustment) are destructive in nature. Mander and Barker write that millions of people are left homeless, landless, and hungry and, at the same time, lose their access to such basic public services as health and medical care, education, sanitation, and fresh water.10 A question arises here: Do these globalizing institutions know what they are doing, or do they just blindly follow a failed ideological model?

These institutions have an assignment: To remove all impediments to the free flow of global capital as it seeks to pry open the world’s last natural resource pools, markets, and cheap labor (and to keep it cheap). To suggest that they do all this to help the poor is highly cynical. Media, their most powerful weapon, acts like a mirage in the desert of the third world by making distant water (development and prosperity) appear quite near and thereby deluding the thirsty travelers of the poor countries.

Proposed solutions

How can indigenous norms and values run the process of development in a better way without enslaving themselves to Eurocentric models? First, traditional knowledge must not be considered inferior or irrational. Recently, a World Bank report concluded that the œeconomic gaps between developed and developing countries are due to knowledge disparities. Zakar and Ekins have strongly argued that traditional knowledge is not created any differently than modern western knowledge, for both have evolved through the process of experimentation and adaptation and, ultimately, meet the standards of scientific principles.11 Principle 22 of the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development states: œIndigenous people and their communities have a vital role in environmental management and development because of their knowledge and traditional practices. States should recognize and duly support their identity, culture and interests. And enable their effective participation in the achievement of sustainable development.12

Second, if we agree with the functionalist assumption that whatever exists in society exists due to its functional nature, let the third world people devise their own way to development. Our unique ability to consciously accumulate knowledge from practical experiences and pass it on to future generations distinguishes us from animals. Thus, just like the West incorporates some indigenous knowledge (e.g., a holistic approach to sustainable development) into its knowledge system, third world communities should be allowed to take the same approach to western technology.

Third, let the developing nations determine their own definition of what development is so that it will fit into the context in which they live. Indigenous culture and its traits must not be interrupted from outside, as is now the norm. The West indirectly (and sometimes directly) forces poor developing countries to accept its own cultural traits, for example, language (English a medium of instruction), sharing selective information, and technology (usually of inferior quality). Why should people in the third world allow themselves to be transformed into œliving machines deprived of emotions, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes, which is the ultimate goal, either intentionally of unintentionally, of industrialization and modernization?

Fourth, any technical solutions to a particular society’s problems should be put into its sociocultural context. For example, many developing countries rely largely on agriculture to increase their GNP. Thus, they must obtain the relevant technology and other imperatives necessary for farming. Sustainable development goals can be achieved by empowering local people through community participation. As Barr says: œIncrease the participation of indigenous people in the planning implementation and evaluation of projects affecting their future living conditions.13

And last, but certainly not least, the various problems plaguing third world societies, such as poverty, inequality, political and economic instability, and ethnic conflict, can be solved only through the approach of cultural relativism driven by the process of a genuine trickle-up approach of development.

Conclusion

As long as the unequal system of exchange exists between the first and third worlds, third world development will always take the form of first world charity, with the result that development always will be imposed and will never emerge naturally from within the third world society itself.

Footnotes

13 Ibid., 42.